THE HOUSTON
CHRONICLE VALIDATES
ETHNIC CLEANSING OF JEWS IN JERUSALEM AND YESHA

CONDEMNS ETHNIC CLEANSING OF
ALBANIANS

In today's Houston Chronicle (May 28, 1999, page
27A) there is an article, Violent Clashes in east Jerusalem,
which raises questions about the Chronicle's
objectivity, moral perspective, and historical knowledge. The
article concerns the building of Jewish apartments in Jerusalem
and a violent protest by some Arabs including officials of the
Palestine Authority. This is a classic example demonstrating how
the media can distort and mislead its readers according to a
political agenda. The article contains both significant omissions
as well as linguistic obfuscation. I recommend that you read the
article and then make note of the following:

1. The area of the disturbances is referred to as traditional
Arab east Jerusalem. This is a politically charged misnomer. Jews
lived throughout Jerusalem (east and west) for 3000 years. This
is approximately 2400 years before the first Moslem stepped foot
in the city. During Israel's War of Independence (1948-9) the
eastern portion of the city was occupied by the Jordanian army.
All of the Jews were either murdered or ethnically cleansed from
the eastern portion of Jerusalem. The Jordanians destroyed 56
synagogues, the Jewish Quarter of the Old City, and made latrines
of the tombstones from the Jewish cemetery on the Mount of
Olives. Despite solemn treaty obligations with Israel the
Jordanians refused to allow Jews to pray at their Holy Places
including the Western Wall. Since the 1967 Six Day War, Israeli
has controlled the entire city of Jerusalem and has kept the Holy
Places open to all religions. By what right does the Houston
Chronicle reach back 32 years and declare that
the ethnic cleansing of Jews at that time period should stand as
right and just. And, of course by contrast, the ethnically
cleansed Albanians have an indefinite right to return to Kosover.

2. Nowhere in the Chronicle article is it
mentioned that the land to be built on was legally owned by Jews.
Nowhere is it mentioned that building on the property does not
dispossess a single Arab. The Chronicle calls it an
Arab neighborhood. Jerusalem is a very mixed city ethnically and
there are Arabs and Jews in the immediate proximity of the
apartment project. But even if it was an Arab neighborhood
is the Chronicle suggesting that in Houston it would be OK to
keep an Afro-American from moving into a white neighborhood.

3. The most absurd inference in the article is that the
Israelis should avoid doing anything in their own capital that
would annoy the Arabs who plan to make Jerusalem the capital of
'Palestine'. Is it OK for Israel to demand Mecca as its capital?
I would like to make it perfectly clear that the existence of a
single Jew between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean has
annoyed the Arabs. A lot of people have been annoyed with the
presence of Jews, including the Romans, the Greeks, Assyrians,
Babylonians, the Catholic Church, the Nazis, Islam etc ad
nauseam. Yet we persist and survive, much to the
displeasure of some.

The truth, however disconcerting, is that King David made
Jerusalem the capital of Israel while most of the world lived in
caves and had not yet mastered the art of language. This includes
the writers of this Houston Chronicle story.